Suns feature Lenny Wilkens in MLK Symposium

In the middle of Lenny Wilkensâ€™ NBA career, he played for the Fort Lee base team when he could not avoid a prior military commitment.

On a trip to a Texas base in 1962, the team stopped at a restaurant to eat but Wilkens went from starting for the St. Louis Hawks as a rookie to being told he and the other Black players had to enter the restaurant from the rear while the White players and coaches came through the front door.

â€śI just wasnâ€™t having that,â€ť Wilkens told a crowd of more than 200 people who purchased tickets to a PetSmart-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium held before Thursday nightâ€™s Suns-Clippers game at US Airways Center. â€śI said to hell with that.â€ť

Wilkens refused to play the game and was chastised by his major when the team returned to Fort Lee. Then the base commander, a two-star general, stepped and told Wilkens, â€śYouâ€™re right and weâ€™re not going to have that.â€ť

â€śI became the most powerful second lieutenant on the base,â€ť Wilkens said.

Wilkens joined Suns broadcaster Eddie Johnson and former Mercury player Adrian Williams-Strong to reflect on the life and impact of Martin Luther King Jr. in a symposium hosted by Suns broadcaster Tom Leander.

Wilkens, a Hall of Famer who was a nine-time All-Star player and the winningest NBA coach, told stories about growing up in Brooklyn and going to Providence when there were only five other Black students in the school.

â€śNot only if you were an African-American but if you were an athlete, they thought you werenâ€™t smart,â€ť said Wilkens, 75. â€śSo youâ€™re constantly trying to prove you can do the same things as them.

â€śDr. King taught us that you have to look at things differently. Judge the person by the content of who they are and not by their skin. I wanted to prove that.â€ť

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